Summer in the City: A Collection of Dark Speculative Fiction

Dreadful winter cold gave way to ominous spring growth, and now the heat threatens to obliterate all: the third volume of the In the City series has arrived, and veteran editors R.B. Wood and Anna Koon have curated another impressive lineup of international talent in Summer in the City. The scorching sun heats concrete, glass, and steel nearly beyond human tolerance. The oppressive heat of Summer sits like a woolen shroud over the city, while the overextended air conditioners groan as they struggle to provide any small relief to the inhabitants. Hydrants are opened for neighborhood children to cool off, while lucky families escape to the beaches and countryside looking for an occasional breeze. But heat is not the only thing impacting humanity's comfort. The Las Vegas heat is on for a soul purchaser who can find a seller in the city of sin... Sentient ammonium nitrate considers a change of state during the long sunny days in Beirut... Two American social media influencers travel to Tokyo and find more than summer humidity... A young man in Liverpool befriends a potential lover who is not the man he expects...